New Water Security Agency program will cut cost of flood mitigation work
The availability of new grant funding has promoted Swift Current City Council to move ahead with flood mitigation work along the Swift Current Creek.
At the December 17 City Council meeting, council approved an agreement with Golder Associates to develop detailed design drawings for flood protection berms at six locations along the Swift Current Creek. A 50/50 cost sharing project through the 2018 Flood Damage Reduction Program will result in the Water Security Agency covering $99,850 of Golder Associates $199,700 Engineering Assessment.
The 2018 Flood Damage Reduction Program was launched by the Water Security Agency in order to lessen the impacts of flooding throughout the province.
“We were fortunate enough to have done a fair bit of work on flood mitigation previously, so we kind of had a leg up on getting into the early stages of the program, so we were one of the first projects that’s been approved under the program,” explained Mitch Minken, General Manager of Infrastructure and Operations for the City of Swift Current.
Back during their January 5, 2015 meeting, City Council then approved a $118,700 contract with Golder Associates to hold consultations and provide preliminary design drawings for dykes/ berms at six locations along the Swift Current Creek. These six creekside locations were identified in a Flood Hazard Mapping study done by Golder Associated.
Minken said the projects will help eliminate the annual concern of runoff caused spring flooding, and the phased in strategy would help mitigate the effects of a one in 100 year flood event. It would also eliminate the cost of cityprovided resources to lessen flooding effects in the city. It was estimated that the city spent well over $200,000 in flood relief efforts during the flood of 2011.
“In the history that we know of there has not been a one in 100 event in the City. There was the 2011 event which was fairly large, and then there was one that was probably a little bit higher in the late 50s. But they were fairly similar in that regard and they were one in 200 or one in 300 events. So we’ll be, by getting to the one in 100 event height, we’ll be well prepared to withstand big flood events if they happen to come along.”
“If we complete all six locations, basically we would not have to do any temporary flood mitigation in any event, it’ll just flow through,” he told council. “We wouldn’t likely be looking at having to do temporary flood mitigation measures at any time in the future. So hopefully no more sandbagging.”
The City of Swift Current’s 2017 budget included $800,000 for design and construction costs of the flood mitigation project, and those funds remain available for work to begin this year.
At this point the 50/50 cost share is strictly for the detailed design phase, but Minken was hopeful additional grant funding would be provided once work gets underway.
“But as we move into the construction phase there may be some dollars for us as well, depending on how everybody else progresses through the program. But it’s looking fairly positive that there may be some money to assist us with the construction as well.”